Mitch Benn’s a funny guy who writes funny songs and plays guitar. But more than that, he’s also an author and has been on all of the radios talking about music and his love for it. He brings his new show, Don’t Believe A Word, to the Playhouse this month; it'll make you laugh a lot and think a bit as well as Mitch debunks myths and exposes nonsense with a few songs along the way. I grabbed a few minutes with him ahead of his show…
Do you remember the first song you wrote and what it was about? No….I’m not being cagey, I genuinely can't remember! Your new show is called Don’t Believe A Word. What’s that about then? It's my skepticism show. It's about figuring out what's true, what's not and how to treat them accordingly. It goes into some fairly contentious areas as you can imagine, but it's been very popular so far. You’ve done a few shows about musical legends such as Dylan and Elvis. Do you poke fun at them or is it your way of paying homage? Well in the case of the radio shows I just did, the ones about Dylan, Bowie and Elvis (following on from the one I did about the Beatles) it was absolutely both. You can love something while still being very aware of its more ridiculous aspects. You released a science fiction novel in 2013 called Terra, with a sequel entitled Terra’s World released last year. Where did the inspiration to write the books come from? I've been a huge sci-fi fan all my life, I'd always wanted to write a book and the opportunity presented itself a few years ago. Te story itself was inspired by my relationship with my daughter Greta. If you could time travel and eliminate
“I’d eliminate Mariah Carey.”
36 / December 2015/
outlineonline.co.uk
any band or artist from the history of music, who would it be and why? Mariah Carey. No problem with her as such, but her overwrought vocal technique has become the benchmark young singers are taught to aspire to, and it's ruined the craft of singing by turning it into a competitive sport rather than an interpretative art. It's notoriously difficult to write funny songs. How do you do it? You'd be amazed at the lubricative effect that crippling debt and immovable deadlines can have on the creative process! Who else writes funny songs that you admire? Jay Foreman is a terrific comic songwriter and keeps getting better; Laurence Owen's new stuff is amazing, Pippa Evans… in London my band and I run Te Distraction Club, which is an all musical comedy night. It's great finally getting to see lots of new musical comics as they tend to keep us apart on the club circuit. Would you say you prefer performing at festivals or touring at more conventional gig venues more? Tey're all fun in different ways; I try to concentrate on enjoying whatever I'm doing at the moment.
A lot of the music you play has a humorous bent to it, and you are
obviously a talented musician. Do you ever see yourself performing in a less satirical manner? It might yet happen; the thing about the Internet is an artist can put an album out which may be a radical
departure from their usual stuff as a download-only album at no great risk to themselves; if people want it it's there, if they don't you haven't wasted any money printing it up. Finally, can we believe a word you’ve just told us? One of them is a lie. I leave it to your readers to decide which one.
Lizz Page
INFORMATION Mitch Benn brings his show Don’t Believe a Word to Norwich Playhouse on 5th December. Tickets available from
norwichplayhouse.co.uk.
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